The streak of consecutive road course victories for Shane Van Gisbergen in the NASCAR Cup Series officially ends at five, after the Auckland, New Zealand-native finished runner-up in Sunday’s DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
Entering Sunday’s event, the Trackhouse Racing driver was undoubtedly the favorite to take the victory, a win that would have allowed him to match Jeff Gordon’s record of six consecutive victories on the road. Instead, the driver of the No. 97 SafetyCulture Chevrolet Camaro couldn’t find that typical lights-out speed that he had over the last season.
After starting from 13th-place, Van Gisbergen promptly drove his purple-and-black Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the top-10 and into position to record some stage points, which he got in spades after deciding not to flip the opening stage of the race. The second-year NASCAR Cup Series driver would finish second in the stage to his teammate Ross Chastain.
There was never really a point throughout the race weekend where Van Gisbergen looked like the favorite for the victory or the “best car”, spending much of the 95-lap event hovering just inside the top-five and riding anywhere from the third-to-seventh range.
In fact, it wasn’t until the last run of the race, where Van Gisbergen was left chasing down eventual race-winner Tyler Reddick – who made history as the first driver to win the opening three races of a NASCAR Cup Series season – that the No. 97 looked to have speed capable of contending for the victory, which he did, until he faded as the run went on.
When all the cards were down on the table, it just wasn’t enough to beat Reddick, who stretched his lead to nearly four seconds by the time the checkered flag was displayed on Sunday.
“[I was missing] just a little bit of everything,” said Van Gisbergen. “We lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive. Tyler [Reddick] was just amazing. The way he was driving was really good, and his car was good. We just didn’t quite have enough, but it was a great points day for this No. 97 SafetyCulture Chevrolet team, which is what we need for getting into the Chase. It was still an amazing result, but you’re always disappointed with second when the expectations are so high. But overall, it was a really good day.”
Close but not quite enough in the #97 today! I guess it’s a good thing to be disappointed with a P2. Great weekend and hopefully keep the momentum going! Thanks @SafetyCultureHQ for being onboard for the weekend ? pic.twitter.com/a2n5tiOxGu
— Shane van Gisbergen (@shanevg97) March 2, 2026
For the last year, considering the insane road course dominance of SVG, it had always been a question of which driver would be the first to topple the three-time Supercars champion in road course competition, and it didn’t take that long to learn the answer was Tyler Reddick.
Now, with a runner-up result at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) and an impressive sixth-place result last weekend at EchoPark Speedway, Van Gisbergen currently sits fifth in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 25 points above the cutline for “The Chase”, heading into the first stretch of traditional (non-superspeedway) oval events of 2026.
Phoenix Raceway, the site of a top-10 finish in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for Van Gisbergen in 2024, is next on the schedule, with the event at the one-mile oval taking place next Sunday, March 8 at 3:30 PM ET. Coverage of the event will be on FOX Sports 1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
